Because it was, technically. It cannot be upheld as lawful to force someone to buy insurance. But it can be upheld as a tax to encourage people to buy insurance

Wow...Roberts had to bend way around his bunghole to get to his knee to equate the government forcing you to buy something with that something being a tax. Understand, I'm a little right of center but I've said all along that a single payer system (with the attendant increase in taxes) was the only way to do this thing correctly. That would have been an actual, no shiat, tax. This...isn't.

It's not a tax that is now a tax? Good God, the Pandora's Box they just opened with this shiat. Completely and totally gutted the Interstate Commerce Act when it comes to forcing people to spend money. How many times will this decision be used by the Congress in the future to force the citizen to give up more and more of their money by forcing them to purchase something so they can run for re-election claiming "I didn't vote to raise TAXES"?

We need a healthcare overhaul in the worst farking way but this...this sets a new precedent for the relationship between government and citizenry that I don't think many have fully thought through yet.

If there's anything I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks (until they just get over it), it's the collective pain of conservatives over other people they don't know getting the health care because they need it.

Benjimin_Dover:His campaign promise that he would not raise taxes on anybody earning over (what was it?) $250,000 has now just been verified by SCOTUS as a lie. He just raised taxes on the poorest of the poor. I wonder if Roberts intentionally gave the Repubes a campaign issue to hammer on Obama with.

awww did the politician do something seemingly deceptive to advance his agenda?

That stinks. And the agenda was helping ppl to boot! I mean, lying to start wars that kill hundreds of thousands of people, sure, we all understand that. But lying to make people more healthY? DISGUSTING.

LordJiro:Thunderpipes: 17. Individual Mandate Excise Tax (Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying "qualifying" health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

90% of HSA plans will not qualify by the way. Remember when you could keep your current insurance? 14 million people use HSA plans. So over 12 million people will be forced to drop their plans or pay more just on that alone.

It is a loss for Obama, Vodka posting moron. He will lost millions of votes because of this. The Medicaid part screws his plans, and all America loses. This is bad news, for Obama.

Oh wow, I've not seen this phrase used unironically in years. That's just beautiful. Gonna go on about the statisticals next?

See how it plays out. I guarantee you he will lose a lot of votes here. Most Americans do not like being forced to do things. Most Americans are against Obamacare and the individual mandate. The Medicaid part being struck down means Obamacare will cost possibly hundreds of billions more. He is increasing taxes all over the place after saying he would not. He lied about keeping your current insurance if you like it. A big part of the finances was forcing states to expand their Medicaid to cover more people (including lower middle class folks).

Yes, this is bad news for Obama. Not as bad as it could have been, just less bad, or wrong-bad, or babad.

Thunderpipes:26 states can tell Obama and the Feds to suck it now, and they will.

That will go over real well with the citizens in those states. When the citizens of those states that as you put it "tell Obama and the Feds to go suck it", talk to their family and friends in other states and find out how well they are doing health wise because of Obamacare, I don't think they will be too happy with their state leadership. You can't keep lying to people once they see that somebody is getting something that they are not.

Sir Vanderhoot:AmazinTim: NowhereMon: Suck it cons, suck it long and hard

You must mean suck it everyone, now we'll never fix health care. We'll just keep patching scabby band-aids onto the issue, just like this bill.

I was really hoping it would get struck down, then force a complete overhaul single-payer plan. Make health insurance companies obsolete completely.

Oh well. Maybe in a few decades we can join the rest of the civilized world.

I wouldn't have a problem with it if we verified that everyone who payed into the system could use the system. The only way to cover everyone in the country is with a consumption tax similar to the VAT that jolly old England uses.

Then, i would have the VAT run for a year to bank money before the mandate started and pilot the program for 5 years. I say 5 years, because you have to figure that the first year that the thing is in effect it is going to swamped by everyone who doesn't see a doctor on the regs now.

After that 5 year term, if the system was in the red it would go away. Plain and simple. If it can't be sustained it goes away.

14. Flexible Spending Account Cap - aka "Special Needs Kids Tax" ($13 bil/Jan 2013): Imposes cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,388-2,389

It's probably been mentioned but calling it a tax is not a victory. Calling it a tax allows it to be challenged by individuals once it's been collected. All this does is delay a final ruling. In fact it's a bad thing that this has been called a tax.

You can't challenge a tax until it's been collected in the United States.

I'm not going to do more "celebrating" other than simply remind people how much the conservatard trolls were salivating all week over their chance to do an end-zone dance and really stick it to the libs.

Remember that? I do.

/that's all//not a huge fan of this legislation, but it would be hard to challenge this decision

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat:Thunderpipes: Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: Thunderpipes: 26 states can tell Obama and the Feds to suck it now, and they will.

Oh yeah, the States just love turning away Federal money.

Read the ruling, moron. Feds cannot withold money if states don't expand their Medicaid. That was the ruling. They cannot be penalized and will retain what they have. They just don't need to accept a while bunch of new people and be saddled with the burden. Big win. Obamacare was counting on this use of force to drum up money.

Again: the States just love turning money away. "Oh, you're going to give us more money for a new program?.. no, no, we're fine... we'll just sit here with our thumbs up our butts until our constituents find out we're leaving money on the table."

/It makes for great political grandstanding, but ultimately the States never refuse this kind of money even if there are strings attached.

The threat of withholding a mere 10% of highway funds caused 49 of 50 states (Montana continued to flip the proverbial war eagle at the Federales) to change their minimum drinking age from 18, 19 or 20 to 21.

Thunderpipes:17. Individual Mandate Excise Tax (Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying "qualifying" health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

90% of HSA plans will not qualify by the way. Remember when you could keep your current insurance? 14 million people use HSA plans. So over 12 million people will be forced to drop their plans or pay more just on that alone.

It is a loss for Obama, Vodka posting moron. He will lost millions of votes because of this. The Medicaid part screws his plans, and all America loses. This is bad news, for Obama.

Wow dude. You are trying. SO. HARD. But I suppose the double down is an instinctual reaction that happens before the existential horror sets in.

If you are trolling, well done. I actually started to feel a little bad for you.